MANN, HERBIE

MANN, HERBIE (Herbert Solomon; 1930–2003). U.S. jazz flautist. When Mann began his career as a flute player in the early 1950s, he was essentially the only flautist playing jazz. A product of the Manhattan School of Music, he sought models in the world of Latin music, where the flute was a much more common sound. As Mann said in interviews, "When (accordionist) Mat Matthews gave me an opportunity to record jazz on flute (in 1952), there was no tradition of straightahead jazz on the flute…. When Symphony Sid (Torin), the DJ in New York suggested I add conga drums, … the audience understood where the flute was. It was jazz, but it was Latin jazz." The Latin-jazz fusion would prove to be merely the first of many hyphenate jazz styles Mann would explore. He would register bestselling records playing jazz-funk, jazz-rock, discoinflected jazz, Brazilian jazz, and jazz-reggae. After he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in 1998, he even went back to his own musical roots, playing East European Jewish-influenced material. Mann's enormous commercial success was a mixed blessing; jazz purists frequently dismissed his records and playing for their ease, bordering on glibness. Regardless of the merits of his own playing, he established the flute as a jazz instrument.   -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Bradley, "Herbie Mann Knows No Limits," in: Denver Post (Jan. 17, 1998); I. Carr, "Herbie Mann," in: Jazz: The Rough Guide (1995); D. Hodges, Daniel, "Herbie Mann," in: Contemporary Musicians, Vol. 16 (1996); J. Newsom, "Herbie Mann's New Groove," in: The Port Folio (July 9, 2002). (George Robinson (2nd ed.)